page_title: Dan Rice
section_title: Expressions
hierarchical_section_title: Dan Rice / Expressions
caption_attribution_description: Dan Rice
context_page_description: Dan Rice was an American entertainer of many talents, most famously as a clown, who was pre-eminent before the American Civil War. During the height of his career, Rice was a household name. Dan Rice was also an innovator, as he coined the terms "One Horse Show" and "Greatest Show" whilst becoming the pacesetter for the popularization of the barrel-style "French" cuff. He was a leading personality in the new American "pop culture", brought on by the technological changes of the Industrial Revolution and resultant mass culture. Rice became so popular he ran for President of the United States in 1868. With changes in circus venues and popular culture after the Civil War, his legendary talents under the big top have gradually slipped into almost total historical obscurity such that in 2001, biographer David Carlyon called him "the most famous man you've never heard of".
context_section_description: A number of popular expressions came into being around Dan Rice.
  Rice campaigned for Zachary Taylor as president, inviting him to campaign on the circus bandwagon, whence the expression "to jump on the bandwagon".
  Early in his career, Rice was down on his luck and only had one horse (in early circuses the core show was a horse show).  His competitors mocked him, saying it was a "one horse show" as a derogatory. Rice was able to turn the expression around by putting on a good show, and it became famously attached to him for the rest of his life.
  The rallying cry of "Hey, Rube!" - later transformed into a noun - originated in New Orleans in 1848 when a member of Rice's troupe was attacked by a mob and he yelled to his friend Reuben, "Hey, Rube!". The phrase is most commonly known today in the circus world as a "Hey, Rube" meaning "come help in this fight".
  Decades before other circuses used the phrase, an Arkansas paper praised Rice's as "The Greatest Show on Earth."
caption: Dan Rice in his later years
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